Ukraine is not Russia. The country governed by the president Zelensky, which has been suffering from the military invasion of the Kremlin for a week, does not have the capacity and resources of its enemy on the battlefield. And not in cyberspace either. For the past few days, the Ukrainian government has been combing the Internet for computer experts who help make the conflict visible and launch attacks against the enemy.
To find experts to help the country gain support on the Internet, the Ukrainian government has resorted to hacking forums, according to information from ‘Archyde.com’. He is also behind a Telegram channel, called
IT Armyin which they are organized cyber attacks
against Russia.
“There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is already on the channel for cyber specialists,” said the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorovin a publication made on his Twitter account on February 26.
We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. All operational tasks will be given here: https://t.co/Ie4ESfxoSn. There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists.
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022
Since its launch, IT Army has achieved over 277,000 subscribers and counting. Inside, addresses of banks and government websites are shared, as well as phone numbers of people (allegedly) related to the Kremlin so that their affiliates launch attacks with everything they have. There are also messages in which he encourages direct broadcasting on YouTube showing the situation in Ukraine and sending messages to international organizations.
IT Army is not alone
So far, this group has managed to cause temporary disruptions on Russian and Belarusian sites. In one of his most recent messages, published today at 12:21 p.m.; he calls for them to be carried out ‘hacks’ against mobile operators, railway, satellite system and the Bank of Russia, among others.
In a conversation with ABC, the ethical ‘hacker’ Deepak Daswani is surprised by the movements that are being made from Ukraine, aimed directly at the recruiting ‘hacktivists’: “Most likely, it is the best means they have found to try to counter Russia, a country that has always been said to be very powerful in cyberspace.” It should also be remembered that in recent days several professional cybercriminal groups from Eastern countries, such as Conti, have sided with the Kremlin, threatening all those who launch attacks against the country governed by Putin.
For their part, users who claim to be Anonymous – something that anyone can be a part of, “since it does not function as a structure or a group”, as Daswani claims – have been carrying out cyberattacks against Russian government sites. All in all, it seems that, at least in the first impasses of the war, Ukraine is the country that has received the most blows on the Internet. According to a recent study by the cybersecurity company Check Point, its institutions suffered an increase of 200 % in the number of attacks.
IT Army is not the only group of ‘hacktivistas‘ intended to launch attacks against Russia that can be found on Telegram. On the contrary, doing a quick search you can see many other similar spaces, some with a similar name. Check Point points out, in this regard, that the same day that Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, the groups in the messaging ‘app’ multiplied by 6 with topics related to the war. The number of users has also increased.
71% of the new channels, according to information from the firm, broadcast flash news with unedited and often unverified information. 23% of them are used to coordinate cyberattacks against Russia, mainly denial of service. In addition, 4% of these request cryptocurrency donations to support Ukraine.
«Telegram has some anonymity measures that WhatsApp does not have and it is a quite popular site in Eastern countries. In addition, it has some settings that allow you to prevent your name or phone from being known. Offers more anonymity. It is also widely used by cybercrime for this reason, “explains Eusebio Nieva, technical director of Check Point in Spain.
Nieva says that, on the surface, the participants are mainly looking for «publicity and ensure that the conflict gains notoriety»: «It does not seem that an economic benefit is sought. Although some of the participants could be doing it or start doing it in the future.
But isn’t Telegram Russian?
If groups of ‘hacktivists’ in favor of Ukraine, and the government itself, use Telegram, it is because they know full well that the application is not Russian, as they have repeatedly expressed to ABC from the application. Its founder and chief executive, Pavel Durov, left the country early last decade after coming under pressure from the Kremlin. The government wanted me to share data on opponents within the Russian clone of Facebook Vkontakte, which he directed until shortly before leaving the state. Telegram came later, specifically in 2013, when Durov was living the nomadic life.
In a
publication on his own channel within Telegram, Durov describes the idea that his ‘app’ “is Russian” as a myth: “Telegram has no servers or offices in Russia and was blocked there from 2018 to 2020.” The application, according to the platform itself, has never had data centers in the country governed by Putin.
Ukraine, for its part, should also not expect Telegram to take action to eliminate the channel of the IT Army or any other related ‘hacktivist’ group. And it is that, as he explains ‘
The mirror‘, content moderation is not exactly the strength of Durov’s platform, which already has 500 million users. And if governments ask the app for information, they can sit back and wait. “To date, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments,”
affirm from the app.